All change

so tomorrow is my birthday and ill be the grand old age of 34 and I thought it was time for a hair cut as i'd not had one since June - I know its a long time but well we have been so busy preparing for the house move and everything else that's been going on.

My hair was looking tired and needed a colour and a cut in desperate need of some papering.

so hear it is my new hair :)

 

 

its very blond but I think I like it - what do you think ?

 

 

yes that's a dinosaur behind my head lol

 

We got keys !

So at last I can share some good news - we have had the house keys to our new home.

It was such a nerve wrecking day waiting for the keys.

Then a phone call , so we dashed into town to the park. The park is close to the estate agents. It felt like an eternity so we went to a local café, and wait

Then another phone call to say we could collet the keys. As soon as we got the keys a huge rush of emotion ran through me - we had just brought a house  Home our happy ever after home and I just burst in to tears as we walked out the door

 I cant wait to get moving , but that will have to wait another week - first we have to do a spot of decorating G's room is BRIGH pink.
we have no idea what theme we are going for but I have a few ideas and cant wait to get started.

Britmums meet up in manchester

A few weeks ago  It was Manchester's turn to host the britmums meet up and it was so nice to meet up with Suzanne and Jen from britmums.

I travelled up with http://www.geekmummy.com/ AKA Ruth Who I discovered lives about 4 miles from our new home - we met up at waitrose and we were off and we arrived in good time.

Social occasions are hard for me as I'm just confident in speaking - im even worse when its a big crowd of people and when its people I don't know I jus panic and go silent as im very shy and quite I find it hard to be heard in a conversation.

This has been made worse over the past 3 years been a stay at home mum is quite isolating , the fact that i only talk to 1 other adult for days on end I'm sure hasn't helped.

But I think (hope ) I'm getting more confident the more blogging events I go to. So by the time G goes to school I should be the confident chatty mum who every one will like.

Anyways this weeks britmums meet up was at the wonderful Kellogg building in Manchester - now I had no idea that Kellogg was based in Manchester but there you go - you learn something new everyday :)

When you walk in the reception area you are greeted with Tony tiger :) , and the building is stunning inside.

We were treated to tea and some Kellogg's snacks which were lovely and  then we just had a lovely chat with each other. We were given a goody bag full of special K porridge. Which I have found to be lovely. I'm not a fan of the plain oat but H is and so I'm left with the Yummy red berry and apricot and honey which are both as nice as each other.

12 saturdays left !

Why is Christmas Advertised so Early?    

 

In the next week or two we will begin to see Christmas advertisements in supermarkets, on the internet and all over TV breaks, even though is four months away. Is there a reason other than trying to make as much money as possible, and if so, why does it have to be so early?  Here’s a look at some of the possible reasons for September Christmas advert.

As an example of just how early brands are doing it, Selfridges set up the Christmas section of their flagship London store a whopping 141 days before Christmas, meaning you can now get anything you need and even some things you don’t. One of those things includes a £1600, 6ft polar bear to bring a little extravagance to your living room.

 

Making loads of money?

The automatic assumption when we’re trying to figure out why Christmas averts appear so early is that companies do it to make more money. The trouble with this theory is that Christmas is going to happen every year, regardless of whether brands advertise now or in November, so it seems unlikely that it could make that much of a difference.

 

Giving people a chance to save

If you’re luckily enough to not have to worry about how much you spend on Christmas gifts then you might not realise how tough it is for people on lower wages to deal with the big expense of the Christmas break, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t want to celebrate Christmas like everyone else. Having a big period of advertising gives people plenty of notice on what’s available and how much it will cost, so people can use the extra time to save up if they really want something.

 

Time to shop

People who work 40+ hours a week could face time constraints when it comes to going out/shopping around online for presents. Advertising Christmas gifts simply gives people more potential time windows to go and buy presents. If no one advertised till December, there could be a lot of empty spaces under the tree.

 

Personalised Gifts take longer

There has been a huge rise in personalised gifts available over Christmas from sites like www.gettingpersonal.co.uk and they obviously can’t be taken off the shelf with your desired custom elements. Ordering personalised presents will take longer to arrive at your door than usual, so a longer ad period makes this better.

 

New house dreams ....

What a few weeks its been the house move has come to a stand still.
We have gone back and forth to the solicitors and well I'm at my whits end. The best thing is there is no chain at either end. So I don't know what's going on :( Its been 8 weeks on Monday since the accepted our offer and the house was taken off the market.
Have they changed their mind and don't want to sell ?


No packing has been done and I've no intention until we have a date. I do think we will be getting someone into pack for us though as I don't think I'm up to moving boxes around.

So our dream house is just out of reach, but I cant wait to start the next chapter in our lives in a new area . Closer to friends and family.

I can't wait to get G into a playgroup and then pre school and then school ( which is a 2 minuet walk away.

But for now we are waiting....... 

spare 20K - yes please

if I had a spare 20k yes a whole £20,000 I would like to give at least half to charity, but I know H would completely freak out cus he would want to spend it on a car. His dream car is a Nissan z370 something to do with skylines ??? think fast and furious think rubbish jap cars -only kidding and please don't be offended my comment its a personal joke between me and H.
 So I guess as we are moving house and he's paying .  the car he wants is worth 20k at the moment so I would let him have half so i'm down to 10k :(




We are moving house in 6 weeks (ish ) and we need a whole lot o new furniture. As I've said in a previous post all of our current furniture is kaput /old and tired

So new bed £1000 I would have a king size, don't get me wrong I love snuggerling up to H but we are both tall people and the bit extra space would be amazing.
new wardrobes £700 ikea -
bedside tables £200 ikea

Sofa - we would need a 2+3 so we can have guests and seat them. plus a sofa bed for the second lounge- so that's about £3000.

some funky bar stools for our kitchen £150

A new TV panansonic is the best make in my eyes ! £679



Then comes the holiday of a lifetime - which I'm hoping will cost about £4000 .I would love love love to go and do route 66 in the USA - driving through new mexico around this time of year so I could once again see the shooting stars that show this time of year. In new mexico the air is so crisp and so clear its perfect for star spotting and I have found memories of lying on the grass at ville phimote - a scout ranch in amaerica and watching the amazing site that it is. There is no light pollution at all just an amazing site

.

But this is dream money and I know in my heart I will never get to see the stars so clearly :( As for the furniture in our new home it will be a long time and a lot of saving before we can afford it.

This post is an entry for BritMums #Spend20K Challenge sponsored by The National Lottery, with more time to win more money on the new Lotto game. Find out more about new Lotto, which starts in October.

please click on the lottery badge to connect to britmums where youcan take part :)

#housemove13

So our house move is moving forward and we should hopefully be in our dream home in 6 weeks time :)

6 WEEKS OMG how on earth am I meant pack in 6 weeks we have, over the years collected so much stuff. our garage is bursting and our loft is half full. On top of that I have demanding toddler who is wanting lots of attention.

Our little G still isn't talking - well a few words , so how do we explain the new move. We don't know how much he is aware of what's going on.

We are so looking forward to our new start as this will be our first together home, as I moved in to H's place. I'm looking forward to putting my stamp on the place and getting some new furniture and crockery - is it bad that I want everything new? When we moved in together I was a (mature) student and H was a true bachelor. Most of our furniture was second hand and almost everything else was brought in from my uni flat.

I cant wait to start our new life with a whole lot of new furniture , but that will have to wait just a little it longer until we have saved just a little bit more :) as we are sensible people and don't believe in debt so no interest free finance for us. We prefer to save up the old fashioned way. I think its much better doing things this way , as I couldn't sit on a sofa or lie in a bed that didn't belong to me - us.